Perhaps it needed a little bit more flat parts and Stage 12 would have been a perfect, yet beautiful and terrible, time trial.

More than 1 hour of total climbing effort, something like 600 corners over 60.5 km: the result was a breathtaking 1 hour and a half always at the limits.

If we calculate the total of the climbing parts, Menchov "dropped" Leipheimer by 37", Garzelli by 1'12", Di Luca by 1'43", Sastre by 1'44", Pellizotti by 1'50", Brajkovic by 1'55", Basso by 2'09", Armstrong by 2'35", Simoni by 2'46".

The total of the descending parts saw the russian winner give in 43" to Brajkovic, 23" to Pellizotti, 17" to Leipheimer, 9" to Garzelli and Armstrong, while he gained a few seconds on Di Luca and Sastre, perhaps both penalized by arguable technical choices.